


terror bingo fill: "hickey"

by More_night



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: M/M, written for the terror bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22913965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/More_night/pseuds/More_night
Summary: In which James has a hickey, Francis is worried, Goodsir is oblivious and Hickey is sneaking around.
Relationships: Captain Francis Crozier/Commander James Fitzjames
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30
Collections: The Terror Bingo (2019)





	terror bingo fill: "hickey"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Jonnie for help and beta!

* * *

Harry Goodsir was deep in contemplation of one of their specimens--a sponge-like creature they had collected earlier, during their cruise off the coasts of Greenland. On the one hand, it reminded him of better days and kept his mind off Jacko's congealed body. On the other hand, the spikes covering this particular organism, although softened by its preservation, were truly fascinating. When an incision was performed, these spicules oozed some kind of--...

Two knocks on his door. "Dr. Goodsir, sir."

"Yes?"

"Captains asked for you. It's Captain Fitzjames, sir."

Goodsir followed Mr Hickey to the great cabin. Therein, he found Captain Fitzjames, in all appearances unharmed, sitting calmly, if somewhat impatiently. Captain Crozier was with him. 

"Dr Goodsir," Captain Crozier greeted him. "We need your expertise."

Goodsir closed the door behind himself. "At your disposal, Captains. What is the matter?"

The two Captains shared a long glance. And whatever the staring match had been about, Captain Crozier won it with an arch of his brows. 

"A... kind of bruising has... surfaced on my skin," Fitzjames said at last.

"Very well. Where?"

Fitzjames tilted his head to the side, pulling his necktie out of the way to expose the skin of his neck at the junction of the shoulder. 

Goodsir brought the lantern nearer--this early in March, the days were not yet so long, nor the sun so strong. The bruise-like mark was circular in shape, its edges ill-defined, with a small, clean spot in its center. It was large, which had perhaps alarmed Fitzjames--but only slightly larger than a shilling. If anything, the size and shape reminded Goodsir of a human bite with the teeth marks absent. 

"Does scurvy do this?" Crozier asked, worried as Goodsir had rarely before seen him. 

"Unfortunately, yes," he said carefully. "It is not painful, is it?" Goodsir asked Fitzjames, pressing his thumb slightly in the center of the bruise. 

Fitzjames had his eyes closed. He shook his head once firmly, seemed to wish the ordeal done with as soon as possible--although it was less clear what the ordeal was: Goodsir's medical scrutiny, or Captain Crozier's concern. 

Which concern Goodsir should better address: "It is a petechial bruise," he explained. "It results from the breakage of the minute blood vessels which innerve the skin. I'm afraid it's quite common in scurvy. Bruises will appear on the body where no contact or trauma has taken place. There has been no contact, Captain?" he asked Fitzjames.

"No contact at all, Dr Goodsir," was the vivid reply.

Harry Goodsir's experience as a physician thus far had not been as extensive as he could wish. Yet he knew instantly--from Captain Fitzjames's tension, voice and bearing--that he was not entirely truthful. For one or two seconds, he considered the possible cause. An accidental contact? A fall, perhaps? Surely not, he decided. The bruise would have been larger and darker. 

Still... "Are you certain? Our circumstances would certainly account for clumsiness--..."

"Quite certain," Fitzjames replied. 

Goodsir pondered the matter for a short moment and, unable to think of another plausible cause that might demand further medical investigation, dropped it. 

"It is unfortunate, but expected given our... predicament," he said regretfully. "Was that all?" he asked the Captains. 

Captain Crozier looked slightly less concerned now... In fact, if Goodsir's evaluation of his physionomy was correct, he was... contrite? 

"Yes, Harry," Fitzjames said. "Thank you." He cast a darting look at Captain Crozier. "And apologies for taking you from your activities."

Goodsir nodded a salute, smiled his best reassurance and walked out. Once he had closed the door after himself, a few words spoken by Fitzjames reached him: "Francis, I told you not to worr--..."

He did not make out the rest: his attention was seized by a piece of a Navy-issue greatcoat, conspicuously caught in a shut cabin door. He knocked lightly. The door opened revealing the owner of the coat flashing his widest grin at him. 

"Mr Hickey. Eavesdropping. Seriously?"

"Me? Never would, sir. Was only looking for--..."

"Well, I needn't disturb you while you pretend not to eavesdrop, then."

Goodsir smiled to himself before he returned to his preserved sea-sponge specimen and his own worries in the infirmary. 

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Yes, Hickey is there solely because I couldn't resist the pun. 
> 
> 2\. The sea-sponge Goodsir describes is the _Pheronema carpenteri_ (a small, basket-shaped sponge discovered in 1869). I don't think it's ever been found off the shores of Greenland, so that part is fictional science. The Wyville Thomson (1873) gives the following description: " _Holtenia carpenteri_ is an oval or sphere 90 to 100 mm. in height, with one large oscular opening at the top about 30 mm. in diameter, whence a simple cylindrical cavity cupped at the bottom passes down vertically into the susbtance of the sponge to the depth of 55 mm. The outer wall of the sponge consists of a complicated network of the cross-like heads of five-rayed spicules. One ray of each spicule dips directly into the body of the sponge, and the other four, which are at right angles to it, form a cross on the surface, giving it a beautiful stellate appearance." The liquid oozing from the spicules which Goodsir is initially prevented from investigating is a "consistent semi-transparent gelatinous matter". Wyville Thomson 1873 70-72. (Picture [here](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9r2UWj3R53s/T5ZY5PRRNHI/AAAAAAAABBM/uUSFu8bYlJk/s1600/Pheronema+carpenteri.jpg).)


End file.
